A confrontation over a Communist Party of India (Marxist) book stall at Jadavpur’s 8B bus stand in Kolkata escalated on Saturday evening after police arrived to inspect permission documents and a bulldozer was allegedly brought to dismantle the temporary structure, according to a report by Sangbad Pratidin – Kolkata.
The report said local residents and party supporters stood in front of the bulldozer with books and prevented it from moving towards the stall. Police personnel, including central forces, were reported to have surrounded the site as tensions grew during the evening. The incident took place on Saptami, amid a wider dispute over temporary political book stalls operating at several locations across Kolkata and adjoining areas during the festive period.
According to the report, police officials asked party workers to produce documents permitting the stall. This led to an argument between the officials and Communist Party workers. Party representatives then asked publishers associated with the stall to come to the location. The report did not include a response from the police or the municipal authorities on the permission issue or the alleged deployment of the bulldozer.
Communist Party leader Sudip Sengupta said the police had withdrawn after supporters gathered at the site, but alleged that the stall could still be dismantled later at night. Party workers were therefore arranging overnight security around the stall, the report said. The book stall at the 8B bus stand was described as the largest of the Communist Party’s temporary stalls in Jadavpur.
The dispute is part of a wider series of reported confrontations involving temporary left-wing book stalls. The report said a stall near Purbachal Shakti Sangha in Haltu, organised by the party’s Haltu area committee, was asked to close after police officers from Garfa police station arrived following its inauguration. It also referred to earlier objections to stalls in Kasba and reported an attack at Dhakuria, where a Communist Party of India stall outside a State Bank branch was allegedly dismantled by police.
The Socialist Unity Centre of India separately alleged that 50 to 60 police personnel and municipal officials arrived near Babubagan, close to Dhakuria station, at about 5pm and demolished its book stall without prior notice. The organisation said the stall had operated at the location for more than 15 years. These claims were also reported by Sangbad Pratidin and were not accompanied in the supplied report by a response from the police or civic administration.
The report further said that at Jagatpur in Baguiati, party workers alleged that a group linked to the Bharatiya Janata Party threw books from their stall into a nearby canal, pushed workers and issued threats. The allegations have not been independently confirmed in the supplied material.
CPI(M) state secretary Mohammed Salim said the government was focused on the festival while failing to stand with vulnerable people, and alleged that preventing left-wing book stalls had become a priority. He said the stalls continued to draw visitors despite the reported obstacles. The immediate administrative question remains whether the temporary stalls had the permissions required for the locations and what process was followed before any removal action. No official clarification on those points was included in the report.
